MoonRF, the rebranded open‑source project formerly known as open.space, is pushing the limits of amateur radio by offering a 240‑antenna phased array that can bounce signals off the Moon. The kit, slated for a July 2026 launch, delivers 1 W per antenna and a 12 V DC power draw of roughly 1.5 kW, enough to reach the lunar surface.

Each 4‑antenna SDR tile, called QuadRF, operates in the C‑band from 4.9 to 6.0 GHz and supports full duplex with 40 MHz per‑antenna bandwidth. An 8‑bit I/Q interface feeds a Lattice ECP5 FPGA, keeping latency under 1 ms. The design targets low‑cost, high‑directivity experiments like fox hunting and satellite downlinks and also for high‑gain backhaul links and drone telemetry.

The full 240‑antenna array, assembled from 60 QuadRF tiles, achieves an expected gain of 39.3 dBi and an EIRP of 63.1 dBW, sufficient for reliable Earth‑Moon‑Earth links. Beam steering spans roughly 60°, and coherent clocking across tiles keeps phase errors below 1.4 ps. The system runs on a 12 V DC supply drawing about 1.5 kW peak for amateur operators.

Licensed under the Technician+ amateur radio class, the kit offers a practical entry point for hobbyists to explore phased‑array theory, high‑gain backhaul, and lunar communication without the expense of commercial arrays. By making the hardware and software open source, MoonRF invites the community to iterate, expand, and push the boundaries of low‑cost space radio today.